Seventh Year Ball
Chapter 1 Night Time Conversations
It was Harry and Hermione's seventh year, Voldemort had been defeated near the end of the year before but they lost more then the worry of Voldemort, they lost their best friend and his sister. They are both happy that He-who-must-not-be-named is gone and they pretend that the ones who died are 'in a better place,' but when they would go up to their respective Head Boy and Head Girl dorms they would sometimes cry themselves to sleep at night. Today was no different; Hermione sat by her large window, that overlooked the lake, with a book on her lap and tears falling down her face into the worn parchment pages, as Crookshanks played with a broken quill, on the floor.
"Crookshanks!" Harry yelled running up the stairs, pursuing the cat.
"Holly Cricket! Knock First! I could have been changing or something!" Hermione stood up, closing the book on her finger.
"Sorry Hermione." Harry said picking up the broken quill that Crookshanks dropped, "He was up in my room and stole my quill, after I stepped on it."
"It's alright, he does it all the time, to me." She pointing her wand at the broken quill and muttered the fixing charm.
"Thanks, Hermione." He smiled looking at her face, "Have you been crying, your eyes are all red and puffy?"
"Um…yeah," she admitted, looking at the floor, "I just was studying and my mind drifted off to when I would help Ginny and Ron with homework and…well you know what I mean right?" Hermione started crying again.
"I know, Hermione, I know." He hugged her swaying back and forth letting her warm tears fall to his shirt. He rubbed her back, comforting her, holding her close to him. He held on to her for almost an hour, as she cried. This was the way he expressed his desire to cry but he would never cry in front of her or anyone for that matter. "Hey Hermione if you want I have some chocolate up in my room." He asked his best friend. Plus, ever since his first encounter with the dementors Harry always kept some chocolate around, just incase anything happened.
"Thanks Harry." Hermione wiped away a tear, almost smiling, "You are defiantly the best friend a girl could have."
"Er…you're welcome." Harry quirked his eyebrow.
"Now you said something about chocolate?" She chuckled.
"Why yes I did." Harry smiled.
"As you know, that is music to my ears, may I have a piece?" She said innocently. Her eyes daring him to say no, but Harry was not that thick, he knows that if someone suggests chocolate to a girl they will get very peeved if they don't get some.
"Yeah, come up to my dorm."
"Okay." She slid her feet into her fuzzy blue slippers and followed him to his messy dorm. There were unfolded crumpled shirts and pants littering the floor. His school robes were lying on the floor in a pile. The blankets on his bed were half on half off only his broom was in its right place, in the corner by the door. "Well, er…" she waved her wand at his clothes and they flew into his laundry basket.
"Er… Thanks, Mione. I didn't want to clean."
"No problem." She smiled as she pointed her wand at his bed and the sheets made them self magically, of course.
"How do you know how to do all of this?" He asked with a smirk.
"I did it all summer. All I heard was 'Hermione, make my bed!' and 'Hermione, do this do that.' Just because I could use my wand."
"I hexed my family and went to Sirius'. You should have come it was me, him, and Lupin." Harry sighed handing her a bar of chocolate that he had retrieved from his nightstand.
"Well, I wouldn't want to break up the testosterone fest." She smiled biting into the bar of Honeydukes chocolate. "Mmm…caramel?" her eyes flicked up to his.
"Yeah, I had a major sweet tooth when I got it…"
"…then when you got back you didn't." She guessed, she had done the same thing one day.
"Yeah, spur of the moment type of thing."
"With you it's always spur of the moment things." Hermione smiled handing him the uneaten part of the chocolate bar.
"Hey, I take offence to that!" Harry joked, and then he became serious "Alright Hermione, I need help."
"With what?" Hermione said warmly
"Homework and the whole Weaslys hating us thing." Harry said glumly collapsing on his bed Hermione sat down next to him and hugged him.
"I know Harry, I know." She whispered, "They were like family to me too." They sat on Harry's bed, as she hugged him and they cried into each other's shoulders, all the tears they had been holding back from the rest of the world. They both slept in Harry's room that night.
The next night Hermione was sitting on their private common room couch, when Professor McGonagall entered their dorm.
"Ms. Granger, where is Mr. Potter?" Professor McGonagall demanded upon entering the room.
"He told me he was going to fly around outside for a little while. Professor if you don't mind me asking…" Hermione said biting her lip, looking up from her potions essay. Professor McGonagall nodded for her to continue, "Why do you need him, was it anything he did? Because if he did something I can yell at him for you, if you want."
"No, he is not in trouble." The Professor sighed, "It's just a matter I need to discuss with the two of you."
"Oh well then…one minute." Hermione got up from the couch and walked over to the window. She opened the window and put her head outside. "Harry get inside Professor McGonagall needs to talk to us!" she screamed out the window and Harry came flying over to her in a hurry.
"Whatever it is I didn't do it."
"It's nothing bad, I hope." She looked at her professor.
"Well every year this school has a ball for only the seventh years and the younger grades can not find out until their seventh year. Traditionally the Head Boy and Girl always open the dance with their dates, though in some cases the Head Boy and Girl do go to the ball together." She glanced at Harry when she said this.
"So, you want to know if we'll be going together or not?" Harry asked, placing his broom in the corner where wall meets wall.
"I was just informing you that there is a ball and you two must get dates from your year." Professor McGonagall started to leave.
"Professor what if we don't want to go to the ball do we have to?" Harry asked.
"Potter you are opening the dance. Find a date, in your year." She left.
"Not fair." He mumbled sitting on the couch, "This is not bloody fair!" He raised his voice a little.
"You think I want to go either?" Hermione sat next to him.
"You're a girl, girls get excited about dancing and dresses and you know the whole Cinderella Ball type thing." Harry sighed
"Harry, I know. I'm a girl but you know as well as I do that I don't get excited over a dance. The only reason I looked the way I did, at The Yule Ball, was because Lavender and Parvati were crazy about the ball, and they 'decorated' me."
"So, you're not a ball obsessed crazy animal?" Harry asked, "What do you mean 'decorated' you?"
"No, I'm not, and that means they did the makeup and hair and dress and shoes and everything." Hermione sighed, "I've got nothing going for me except that I'm friends with you."
"No you don't."
"No, it's true." Hermione said, "Look at it this way. Krum, well he was a pompous little arrogant jerk and he was conceded too. Then I dated my muggle friend Nick, now I grew up with him, don't get me wrong I love the kid but as a brother not a boy friend. Lastly there was Ron, one week, and I almost ripped all of his hair out, literally."
"Hermione, Krum was long distance, Nick was too, and Ron was trying to dump you without killing the friendship, he felt you were like another sibling." Harry said, "You're smart and can be funny in your own way. You have a lot going for you."
"But you, you have every thing going for you. Looks, sports, fame, money, and 'the hero thing', girls love the hero thing. Most girls love it." Hermione said
"Hermione. I don't have looks going for me. I have these huge ugly glasses and messy hair and a disgusting scar on my head." Harry said, "The fame and money and hero thing, you know I hate it. The only thing I like is the Quidditch, just because I have fun when I play."
"Do you know how many fan girls you have?"
"There's a fan club?" Harry said, sounding upset
"Yeah, Colin tried to make me join." Hermione shook her head
"Why?"
"So that I could give them 'insider information' all about you." Hermione said, "You know steel your comb, your night time routine, favorite songs, everything about you." Hermione said with a sigh
"That's just retarded." Harry said twirling her quill between his two fingers
"Can you give that back?" Hermione asked looking at her parchment
"Fine." He tossed the quill back to Hermione
"Thank You." She started to work on her essay again
"Hermione?" He asked
"What?" She looked up at him
"Who are you going to ask to the ball?"
"I want to go alone, but we can't so, I don't know, some one will just have to ask me. I don't fancy anyone right now."
"Oh Really?" Harry asked grabbing her essay
"Yeah, now give that back, I'm not finished." Hermione reached for his arm
"It looks done to me." Harry said and started reading it out loud "This potion known as the Poly Juice potion temporally transfigures the drinker into the physical form of another. The drinker may experience a disgusting taste and smell when they are brewing it and also drinking it." He skipped down the page, "The potion lasts for an hour, but it slowly wears off as time passes, after the full hour the drinker is back to their normal form." He looked up at her, "Mione what are you going to put. 'This potion is against the rules at Hogwarts, and most magical schools. Though my friends and I brewed this potion in the second floor girl's bathroom in our second year, though I did most of the work.' There is nothing else you can add."
"Yes there is." Hermione said, "I can show how it is used by many ministry officials, and the places that it is illegal."
"Mione, Snape gave us this essay to catch us." Harry said
"No, we have to study this."
"He wants to do me in."
"Yeah but only because your father and him had a grudge match."
"You just proved my point."
"But…Oh bugger."
"Guess what?"
"I hate this game. What is it?"
"I finished my essay, before you." He pointed at her
"Oh really?"
"Yeah." He crossed the room and went to the desk in the corner retrieving a sheet of parchment "Look, it's done." He handed it to her
"Well I'll just check it for you." Hermione said and started checking, scribbling away on his paper changing sentence structure and spelling
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I finished. This was a completely random thing I did I don't know where it's going. I just started it in class when I had free time and I just kept working on it. Any suggestions are welcome. This if you can't tell is set in seventh year but fifth and sixth books aren't incorporated, well, to a point they are but not the whole thing. They went to the department of mysteries but Sirius fell and hit his head and it looked like he was dead, but he wasn't. Sixth book forget it. No Ron/Hermione or Harry/Ginny. Er… I forgot my disclaimer didn't I?
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, because if I did things would be different, way different.
Just Mione